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Hosey: Another Halloween without a haunted house?

By Joseph Hosey

Nov. 17, 2018

Halloween was just weeks ago. There may even still be children who haven’t gotten around to finishing off their candy yet. We have nearly a year until the next one rolls around. Yet it might not be enough time to get a haunted house set up inside the Old Joliet Prison.

You wouldn’t think this would be so difficult. It’s not as if the city fathers are trying to lure something as elusive as an Olive Garden to town. But apparently it is this difficult and we may have to go another Halloween without a haunted house in the old prison on Collins Street.

There was supposed to be a haunted house in there already. Well, maybe not in the famous prison from “The Blues Brothers,” but in the less famous prison for women across the street.

City leaders were so confident they had found the right guys to run the place that they didn’t even consider any other interested haunted house operators. Which seemed fishy. Almost like hiring someone for a job that had previously been eliminated and not posting the opening so no one else could apply.

[Shaw Media file photo]

Whatever the situation was, back in February the City Council went ahead and approved a sublease with Aurora Haunted House company Evil Intentions so they could set up shop in the old prison for women.

And how could you blame them? You had Evil Intentions owner Mike Fitzpatrick filling their heads with visions of not just a new haunted house, but also ghost and historical tours, and even a hotel and restaurant. Maybe not an Olive Garden, but an actual restaurant at the haunted house. It sounded almost too good to be true.

The City Council pulled the trigger and went with Evil Intentions in the interest of timing as well. After all, Halloween was a mere eight months away. As Joliet economic development director Steve Jones said in a story by Herald-News reporter Bob Okon, “I think what’s best for the city is to get something going now.”

But only six months later, the plans for the Evil Intentions haunted house took a nightmarish turn. As it happened, the city’s handpicked haunted house company hadn’t been doing much to renovate the old prison for women. Evil Intentions had apparently been trying to work on the haunted house project with investors who bailed on them.

So Halloween came and went without a haunted house in the prison, with Thanksgiving about to come and go as well. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it looks like we may go another Halloween with no haunted house. In fact, they may never get a haunted house for the place at all.

Evil Intentions fell through months ago, but it’s not until this week that we hear about the city putting out a request for proposals for the future use of the old prison for women.

In another Okon story, Jones revealed “he has heard from two national haunted house operators interested in the prison.” But Jones said that “a user may not necessarily be a haunted house and whatever happens may not be done in a year.”

And then he said, “Whether this means we have something by Halloween, I can’t promise that,” because, “We want to do it right.”

So they might not have a haunted house by Halloween. Because they’re doing it right. And it might not even be a haunted house at all. Which doesn’t seem to make much sense.

They already have a building. And not just any building, but an old abandoned prison. What could be creepier?

You’re nearly there. All you need to do is dress some people up like monsters and you’re done. Then you have a haunted house and can charge people as much as $50 apiece just to walk through it.

The fact that they may not be able to accomplish this at some point in the next 11 months is mind-boggling. It’s so absurd that it’s practically scary.

• Joe Hosey is the editor of The Herald-News. You can reach him at 815-280-4094, at jhosey@shawmedia.com or on Twitter @JoeHosey.